Earth-working machines, such as, for example, draglines, may be used for digging or ripping into the earth or rock and/or moving loosened material from one place to another. These machines may include a bucket for excavating or moving the material. The bucket can be subjected to extreme wear from abrasion and impacts experienced during the earth-working applications.
The bucket may include a lip including a plurality of noses projecting from a front edge of the lip. The lip may also include wing plates located at opposite sides of the lip. Various wear components may be coupled to the lip. For example, teeth may be mountable to the noses, lip shrouds may be mountable between the noses, and wing shrouds may be mountable to the wing plates. The lip and wing shrouds may protect the front edge of the lip. The wear components may be releasably secured to the lip by retention systems, such as retaining members or locking pin systems.
During a dumping operation of the dragline, the material being dumped from the bucket may impact and damage the lip shrouds, the wing shrouds, and the retention systems securing these wear components on the lip, which may shorten their wear life. Also, damaging the retention systems may loosen the retention of the the lip shrouds and the wing shrouds on the lip.
One attempt to protect the retention systems for the wing shrouds is described in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2013/0008062 (the '062 publication) to Guimaraes et al. Specifically, the '062 publication discloses that the wing shrouds are releasably retained on the wing plates by retaining members in the form of nut-and-bolt assemblies. The nut-and-bolt assemblies extend substantially perpendicular to the major digging forces and are shielded from material flow by walls of the wing shroud.
While the system of the '062 publication may protect the retaining members for the wing shrouds, it may still be less than optimal. For example, the wing shrouds themselves may not be sufficiently protected from the impact of the material flow. Also, the system of the '062 publication may not sufficiently protect the lip shrouds and the retention members for the lip shrouds.
The disclosed system is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above.